


joining the dots

by deoxyribonucleotide



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: 5 + 1 Fic, Alternate Universe - College/University, Character Study, Dialogue Heavy, Jealousy, M/M, Mentioned Stray Kids Ensemble, Obliviousness, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25336921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deoxyribonucleotide/pseuds/deoxyribonucleotide
Summary: Don't tell anybody, but Chan-hyung’s gotten a bit weird since Felix started dating guys.(Or: five times Chan doesn't approve of who Felix is dating and one time he does.)
Relationships: Bang Chan & Seo Changbin, Bang Chan/Lee Felix
Comments: 10
Kudos: 274





	joining the dots

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came to me out of the blue and didn’t let me go until I finished it. So here it is. ~7k words of Changbin being the only sane person on Earth lol
> 
> In the fic, Chan and Minho are seniors, Changbin’s a junior, and Jeongin’s a freshman. All the other students are sophomores.
> 
> If you’re curious, the footnotes have a list of all the ships referenced in the fic. The endgame, of course, is Chan/Felix.

It’s a nice afternoon, sunny without being too hot, so Changbin and Chan take their lunch on the terrace of Chan’s favorite café. The meal is Chan’s treat, because he’s a nice hyung who thinks that Changbin deserves a reward for the marks he’d received in his subjects. It’s nice having a friend like Chan, someone who’s good at believing in others even when they themselves don’t.

The lunch is good: cold brew coffee and lovely paninis with home-baked potato chips on the side. They finish it rather quickly, and then stay in their seats to catch up and people-watch. It’s a wonder that Jamie hasn’t kicked them out for loitering, but then again, she’s always had a soft spot for Chan. Changbin and he are plainly gossiping over empty plates and glasses, but that’s okay, isn’t it? With how much work Chan takes upon himself to finish, Changbin suspects it will be a while before they can have lunch like this again.

“Actually, something came up the other day,” starts Chan. “You know Felix, right?”

“Yeah,” Changbin answers. Although, he surmises, the more accurate way of putting it would be that he knows _of_ Felix—he’s in a completely different department, and the only reason Changbin knows anything about him is Chan. It’s like this: Changbin doesn’t know Felix personally, but with how much Chan brings him up, it’s almost as if he does.

“Felix asked someone out last week,” Chan says, tapping out a nonsense beat onto the wooden table.

“He did?” says Changbin, not quite knowing how to react to that. “Congratulations? I mean—good for him, I guess. Didn’t you say it had been a while since Felix last dated someone?”

“Yeah,” answers Chan. “He asked a guy from the pol sci department out.”

Changbin doesn’t know a lot of folks from pol sci, but the ones he does are all rather intimidating. “Good on Felix for having the confidence. That’s great, isn’t it?”

Something funny happens with Chan’s face, like he’s drunk milk that’s gone sour and is now trying his best not to show it.

“Oi, hyung,” ventures Changbin, tone somber. Internally, he’s bracing himself for the worst. “You aren’t a _homophobe,_ are you? Because that shit is _not_ cool—”

The weird expression on Chan’s face breaks, and he splutters a denial while blushing to the roots of his blonde hair. “W-what? No! I’m not a _homophobe_ , Changbin, of course not! I, er, I think it’s _great_ that Felix is dating—dating men, even—why wouldn’t I want that—”

“Okay, okay, I believe you,” Changbin says, holding in a laugh at how shaken up Chan is. He doesn’t want Chan to think he’s impugning his character a little too much. “I mean. I’ve been with you during Pride March and all, right? So like, if it’s not the _dating men_ that’s the issue here—because _duh_ , it’s not an issue anyway—what is?”

“Sorry, sorry, I’m just,” Chan pauses, biting his lip in thought. “I guess I’m just worried.”

“Worried,” repeats Changbin, tilting his head at Chan.

“About Felix,” Chan elaborates. He sighs, the blush still high on his cheeks, but at least the rest of his face isn’t as red anymore. “Seungmin’s his first boyfriend, see?”

The name tugs at Changbin’s memories. “Seungmin, like Kim Seungmin from the university student council?”

“Got it in one,” Chan says, expression going cloudy. “Look, I know how busy student council gets—”

“Of course you would, Mr Secretary-General—”

“Hush, you—that was last year and I’m never doing it again,” Chan scolds him. Changbin just gives him an impish grin. “Anyway, that’s not the point. Or—well, it is. I’m worried that Seungmin’s going to be too busy for Felix. Student council’s going to take so much out of him because student council does that to _everyone,_ and Felix told me that Seungmin’s aiming to graduate with highest honors, too. I’m kind of… kind of scared that he won’t have time for Felix, is all.”

Changbin stays silent as he digests Chan’s concerns. On the one hand, council duties really do run a man into the ground. Last year, Changbin bore witness to Chan’s consecutive all-nighters as he condensed general assembly minutes, wrote sponsorship letters, and organized university-wide events. Chan’s fear that Seungmin would run out of time isn’t completely baseless.

On the other hand, though, it’s not as if either of them knew Seungmin well. Or at all, for that matter. Maybe Seungmin’s the same type of overachieving android that Chan is. Maybe Seungmin can hold a council position, gun for a 4.0 GPA, _and_ keep a relationship at the same time. It seems unlikely, but hey—who’s to say what’s possible and not? Chan himself had gotten away with all that, and his relationship with Jeongyeon had only ended because she was graduating a year earlier.

Changbin relays these thoughts to Chan, and the first thing that he does upon hearing them is wrinkle his nose. “I’m not an _android_ , Changbin, what are you on,” he says.

“That seems like something an android would say,” teases Changbin, if only to enjoy the aggravated huff that Chan lets out. “No, hyung, seriously. We can’t just assume what Seungmin can and can’t do when we don’t know him. And if he said yes to Felix—maybe he’s already considered all this shit, too.”

“You’re right,” concedes Chan. “Sorry—I don’t know what came over me. I just. Well. I don’t want Felix to be lonely, you know?”

“I know,” Changbin says, having been with Chan through quite a few of his Felix-centric anxious episodes. “And besides, it’s not like Felix is alone. He still has his other friends.”

“Yeah,” says Chan, the storm in his eyes starting to clear.

“And he still has you,” adds Changbin for good measure.

At that, Chan perks up. A tentative smile blooms on his face. “Yeah. He still has me.”

  


* * *

  


Felix and Seungmin’s relationship lasts a month before it winds up, and once it does, Chan calls Changbin up so they can hash the details out in person.

“Why’d you have to tell me, too,” Changbin gripes over the phone, but he hasn’t said no, not yet.

Chan, ever perceptive, picks up on this. “I’m buying you lunch at Kyochon. Which flavor do you prefer, spicy or soy garlic?”

Changbin’s always been a chicken wings kind of guy, so he can’t turn the offer down.

“So apparently, Felix broke up with him,” Chan says—or at least Changbin thinks that’s what he’s saying. Chan is halfway through a chicken wing and his words are rather muffled. “Felix broke up with him,” repeats Chan after a gulp of iced tea, “because he didn’t want to hold Seungmin back.”

Changbin is stunned for a moment. “Wait, what?”

“That’s what he told me,” says Chan, shrugging.

“That’s like, the nicest reason to break up with someone,” Changbin says, scooping more salad onto his plate. “Or maybe the most—I don’t know—passive-aggressive? Was Felix mad when he broke up with Seungmin?”

“Oh, he wasn’t. He didn’t get mad. He really had the best intentions in mind when he broke up with Seungmin; that’s the type of person he is,” Chan says, taking a bite out of a spicy chicken wing. It has him grimacing in five seconds. “Wait, it’s too spicy—”

Graciously, Changbin steals the chicken wing from him. “Yeah, hyung,” Changbin says, finishing the wing in a couple of bites, “I think we’ve already established the fact that Felix is the nicest person on earth.”

He knows from Chan’s various stories that Felix is basically an angel living among men. Felix is friendly and sweet with an unerring tendency to see the bright side in all things. Everyone’s been on the receiving end of Felix’s kindness and sunshine-like smiles—Changbin included, although he only sees Felix a handful of times a month. It seems Seungmin isn’t excluded from Felix’s altruism even in breaking up.

“Yeah, Felix really is,” says Chan, and the dopey smile on his face makes him look a bit drunk. “He’s such a good guy, man. He says they’re still friends now. Hell, Seungmin’s coming to his soccer match next week!”

“That’s… fucking amazing,” Changbin says. He’s never had that much luck staying friends with exes. If they broke up for a reason, what use is it keeping the connection alive?

“I know, right. He’s a damn miracle worker.”

Lunch proceeds in relative peace, both of them just shooting the breeze and eating their way through the chicken. Chan updates him on his thesis, and Changbin tells him he’s a nerd because he’s almost done.

“Who starts on their thesis in their junior year, anyway? Hyung, you work too hard,” groans Changbin.

“Do I? It all seems fine to me,” says Chan. His phone suddenly rings.

Changbin watches the same dopey smile Chan had from earlier unfurl on his face again. “Let me guess, it’s Felix?”

“Yeah,” says Chan—and then his smile drops, and so do the chopsticks between his fingers. “What the fuck?”

“What’s up?”

In lieu of an answer, Chan just holds his phone up for Changbin to see. There’s a message from **_Felix_** 💙☀ that reads: _channie-hyung, jeonginnie fr soccer club just asked me out on a date!_

Changbin whoops. “He went from asking guys out to _being_ asked out. That’s awesome. Nice contact name, by the way.”

“Felix added the emojis,” Chan says, voice a lot bleaker than the situation calls for. “I can’t believe this. Jeongin’s too young!”

“Wait, Jeongin’s underage?” frowns Changbin. “I thought he was from the uni soccer club!”

“No, he’s not underage—Felix wouldn’t date someone underage—but he’s a freshman!”

Changbin can’t help it; he genuinely laughs out loud. “Then there’s no problem, is there? And besides, Felix is a sophomore. They literally have an age difference of a year. Maybe even less!”

“Oi, oi, Changbin-ah, I’m being serious here,” grouses Chan. Changbin reins his laughter in, because okay, he has enough respect for Chan to do that. Once Chan’s satisfied with the level of calm on Changbin’s features, he continues, “when’s the last time you met a freshman and didn’t find them intolerable?”

Changbin opens his mouth to respond but thinks better of it halfway through his first word. “Okay, point,” he says instead, “freshmen are annoying as shit. The ones from my department give me a fucking aneurysm. But that doesn’t mean that they’re bad people, hyung! Give Jeongin the benefit of the doubt.” Changbin pauses, and then decides to tack on, “you’re usually good at giving people that.”

Chan stays quiet for a moment. “Yeah, I know I am,” he says, “but that’s because it’s for me. I recover easy. But when it’s for Felix….” He wrings his hands, seeming restless. “I think it’s in my nature to worry.”

“Hyung, you’ll get an ulcer if you keep this up,” Changbin snorts. “At least let them go on a date before you start sweating it, yeah?”

  


* * *

  


In the end, Chan doesn’t have to worry at all, because Felix and Jeongin go on one date before mutually deciding that it’s better for them to just be friends. Funnily enough, Changbin doesn’t hear of the story through the vine—he hears it from Felix himself, whom he found wandering the mall with Chan. It was easy enough to drag them along to Gong Cha, and easier still to convince Chan to pay for all of their drinks. (Changbin had a sneaking suspicion it was Felix’s aegyo that triggered the latter development, but at least he got a strawberry milk tea out of it.)

“I don’t know why he wanted to go on a date with me,” Felix says, slurping his peach tea with a little pout. “I never once got the feeling he was attracted to me. So while we were walking out of the restaurant, I asked him why he did that, and he just shrugged and said, ‘Oh, I just wanted to try it out’.”

“Well, that’s a good reason as any,” says Changbin. “I hope you can stay friends, at least.” Knowing Felix, that’s a certainty more than anything, but it’s good to mention it anyway.

“Oh, yeah, we’re still friends,” Felix says, nodding. “And he’s a pro at soccer, too! Coach would kill me if I fought with someone who’s a shoo-in for the team.”

Chan, who has stayed quiet throughout Felix’s recollection of his date, speaks up then. “You have to tell me if he gives you a hard time, okay?”

“Hyung!” cries Felix, affronted, “he would never.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really,” Felix answers, grinning sweetly. “Jeonginnie’s a nice boy. He couldn’t hurt a fly.”

“If you say so,” concedes Chan.

It’s remarkable, Changbin thinks, how easily Chan’s swayed when it’s Felix doing the swaying.

“Oh yeah, Changbin-hyung, I haven’t told you this yet, but I’m dating another guy now,” Felix says, turning towards him.

“Who is it?” asks Changbin.

“Wait, you are?” splutters Chan.

“Yeah? Oh, Channie-hyung,” Felix sighs, “didn’t you read my message from last night?”

“Shit, I was working on my thesis until five AM this morning,” says Chan.

“What? And you still went to the mall with me?” Now it’s Felix’s turn to sound grave. “Hyung, you should be sleeping right now.”

“I’m fine, see?” Chan says. “It’s no trouble going to the mall with you.”

Changbin gets the feeling that he’s watching a very interesting and slightly charged tennis match. The two players squabble a little more, and then engage in a long moment of complicated eye contact the meaning of which he can’t hope to decipher.

“Um, guys?” Changbin pipes up once the staring has become unbearable. His two friends jump at his voice. He snickers. “So who is it that Felix is dating right now?”

“Oh, sorry,” Felix says, red in the face, “right, right. It’s Jaemin from my World Literature class; he asked me out two days ago. Says he found my accent hot. So that’s something, yeah?”

“It is,” says Changbin at the same time Chan goes, “It is hot.”

Changbin raises an eyebrow at him. Beside him, Felix stutters something incomprehensible under his breath.

“I mean!” Chan starts, his voice going high, “a-as someone who has the same accent, and er, has been told the same thing by… other people… before….” He fidgets in his seat. “Straya, y’know?”

To spare Chan the indignity, Changbin directs their conversation elsewhere. “Felix, how have your studies been lately?”

Felix whines. “Hyung, anything but that.”

They finish their milk tea and chat a little bit more before splitting up. Changbin has to stop by the grocery to restock his refrigerator and pantry, and Felix offers to drive Chan home. The offer makes Chan blush and refuse, but under the weight of Felix’s insistence, he gives in anyway.

Changbin can only shake his head at the two of them as they leave. What a pair they make.

He forgets the entire conversation until Chan brings it up a month later. He’s plying Changbin with free lunch again; today it’s kimchi ramyeon from a local ahjumma’s shop.

“Remember the guy Felix told you about? That Na Jaemin guy?” Chan’s voice is a conspiratorial whisper.

“Hyung, why’re you whispering?” Changbin asks, his lips twitching in mirth. “Felix isn’t even here.”

“Yeah, but this place is a uni students’ hangout, and I found out _that guy_ is like, insanely popular.”

“He is? Our Felix landed a big fish, then,” says Changbin, shrugging. He’s not sure why Chan is even telling him this. It’s not his business who Felix is dating, and for that matter neither is it Chan’s. Changbin does have a guess as to why Chan cares so much, although it’s much too absurd for the cold light of day, for _now,_ so he keeps it quiet.

Heedless of Changbin’s thoughts, Chan merely continues. “The guy’s in the uni debate society, as well as the uni the basketball team, is in his college’s student council, _and_ volunteers at Habitat for Humanity on weekends.”

“Jesus,” grumbles Changbin. “Does Felix have a thing for freaking overachievers or something? Or, huh, do overachievers have a thing for him?”

“Little bit of column A, little bit of column B, I guess,” mutters Chan. “The guy’s so good at everything, but I can’t shake the feeling that he’s kinda sketchy.”

“What do you mean, ‘sketchy’?” Changbin asks. “Do you think he’s slinging drugs on the side? Because I don’t think there’s enough room in his schedule for him to do that.”

“No, dumbass,” Chan says, and he laughs briefly before settling back into that expression of sincere concern that Changbin’s come to associate with Felix. “Like… I see them together, sometimes. Felix lives in the same apartment building as me, you see. And Jaemin….” Chan scratches the back of his neck. “He seems nice enough. Happy. But when he smiles around Felix, or because of Felix, it never seems to reach his eyes.”

Chan sounds so sure of it that Changbin doesn’t have it in him to say anything else. Instead, he just listens to Chan compare Duchenne smiles and social smiles, and then go on to describe a plethora of other subtle signs that Jaemin is, as he says, sketchy. Surprisingly enough, he’s got a lot of things to say on the matter.

  


* * *

  


Changbin has to hand it to Chan: his hunch about Jaemin turns out to be correct. There is something else to him past his shining image as a wunderkind, and it’s something that blows up two weeks after their conversation at the ramyeon shop.

He and Chan are at Subway, and Changbin is munching quietly on his sandwich. Seated across him, Chan shakes with barely contained rage as he relays the bits and pieces of the story whose disclosure Felix had permitted. Jaemin, apparently, still wasn’t over his ex Lee Jeno, and he’d been hoping to get over him by dating Felix. This plan, given that it is a stupid plan, fails.

“What the _hell_ would possess that Na kid to do that, huh? Did he really have to drag Felix into his—fucking—emotional constipation? Couldn’t he deal with his issues by himself?” Chan growls, his jaw clenched in frustration.

This is the first time Changbin’s seen Chan quite this angry, and it scares him a bit. “How’s Felix?” he asks, trying to steer the conversation into calmer waters. “Is he holding up okay?”

Chan huffs out a little laugh. “Can you believe it? He’s actually dealing with it better than I thought he would be.” He shakes his head, a grimace on his face. “He’s mad, of course. He’d have to be a freakin’ statue not to get mad because of what happened. But he empathizes with Jaemin, too. He told me something like, ‘I bet it’s hard to be in Jaemin’s place, hyung. I can’t blame him for trying to be happy with someone else. It’s just kind of unfortunate that he tried it with me.’”

“The fuck? That’s damn mature for a sophomore,” Changbin says. “God knows I’d be angsting it out had I been in his place. I’d need _therapy_ after that one.”

“I know, right? I’d probably go a little crazy, too. Guess that’s Lixie for us, huh,” says Chan, taking a bite out of his sandwich. “For what it’s worth, I did tell him to go to therapy if, for example, he feels like he needs it. He said he’d consider it.”

Changbin still isn’t over Felix’s reaction, though, and he tells Chan just that. “How’s he taking it so well? Hyung, you know what,” he says, trying and failing to hold back a snort, “I think he’s taking it better than you.”

“Ha ha ha,” Chan intones sarcastically. “I guess if Felix doesn’t want to get _too_ mad then I can—and I will—be mad in his place. Like, I don’t want to get all up in Felix’s business because that’s his business, but sometimes I wish I could just fucking… I don’t know—fucking shake Na Jaemin and give him a piece of my mind the next time I see him.”

Changbin cocks his head. “Wait a minute, you don’t talk to Felix about his relationships? You don’t tell him your worries?”

“Ah, no?” Chan lets out a little self-conscious giggle, crossing his arms. For as much as he was angry a while ago, he seems abashed right now. “I mean… even if I think about stuff a lot, I don’t want to tell Felix _everything_. I don’t want to—er, _impose_ on Felix’s relationships, you know? Like, what if I tell him all this, but it turns out this shit hadn’t even crossed his mind—but now that I told him, that changes _,_ and that might stop him from doing what he wants, and it’s just….” Chan trails off, gesticulating wildly. “Changbin-ah, you get me, right?”

“Yeah, I do,” Changbin says. It never fails to interest him, how Chan is with Felix. He’s protective—sometimes Changbin would say jealously so—and he’s critical of Felix’s boyfriends: whether or not they treat him the way he wants Felix to be treated, whether or not they pass his muster. He worries a lot, damn near works himself into a tizzy because of Felix. At the same time, he’s self-aware enough to know that his anxieties might just be him… overreacting. Being Felix’s hyung, his oldest friend. And he knows, too, that Felix takes after his words a lot. Because he wants Felix to make his own decisions and live his own life, he refrains from burdening Felix with them. It’s a perplexing combination of sentiments, to say the least.

“Still though,” Changbin adds, “you did turn out to be right with this one. So like, you could’ve told him what you thought. Okay, wait, shit—that sounds like I’m blaming you for the way _this_ panned out. It’s more like. Um. I think you need to find the balance, yeah?”

Chan’s eyebrows furrow. “The balance between what?”

“The balance between um, you needlessly worrying him because you’re _you_ and you worry too much where Felix is concerned—” he sees Chan wince, but he doesn’t say anything—“and like, your concerns as one of his friends. I don’t know, there has to be a difference, right? The point is, you don’t have to keep completely quiet. Felix is your friend, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, he’s my friend,” Chan says, and the look on his face—it’s the exact same sour milk expression from two months back. _Huh._ “I’ll do that. Try to find the balance. But not now, since Felix isn’t dating anyone.”

“Oh, he isn’t?”

“Yeah, he says he wants to take a break from dating.”

Changbin nods. “That’s understandable.”

“I get to hang out with him more, too, which is nice,” Chan adds, twiddling his fingers.

He looks rather happy for someone whose best friend just broke up with someone, but Changbin keeps that thought to himself.

The break lasts for two weeks, and then Felix meets Zhong Chenle in his Psych 101 class and falls head-over-heels in love with him. That’s how it seems to Chan, anyway, as he schools Changbin in the details over pizza.

“He’s from China, and he’s the grandson of a billionaire conglomerate founder there,” says Chan. With a fork, he steals the pineapple from Changbin’s half of the slices.

Changbin lets him take them. “Fuck, did you just say billionaire?”

“Yep,” Chan confirms. In between bites, he says, “but the strangest thing is—he’s super fucking nice? Felix tells me he’s super fucking nice.”

Chan details the dates Chenle takes Felix out on: dinners at The Shilla, daytime tours at the Seoul Museum of Art. But the ostentatious displays of wealth, even if they were unintentional, made Felix feel awkward. He’d told Chenle this, and Chenle—because he’s an angel, too—suggested that they go and do something else. And so they went on a date in a skate park, eating hotteok and bungeo-ppang after. The weekend after, they had another date, this time a cozy picnic at the Han River.

“That sounds ridiculously cute,” Changbin comments. He wants to coo, but he holds himself back.

“Yeah, and get this: the guy’s stupid talented, too. He knows how to play seven instruments, speak four languages, _and_ sing.”

“What the hell, hyung,” breathes Changbin, awed. “The bar just keeps getting higher and higher. Who’s next on Felix’s list of suitors? Freaking Cha Eun-woo or someone like that?”

“Nah,” Chan laughs, “I’m pretty sure that by sole virtue of his birthright, Chenle’s net worth is already higher than his.”

“So he’s filthy fucking rich,” surmises Changbin, “is that the problem?”

“What do you mean?”

Oh, really. It’s impossible for Chan not to have noticed. Changbin smirks as he elaborates. “You know what I mean, hyung. You always think something’s wrong with the guys Felix is dating—”

“No, it was just a coincidence that there was something wrong with all of them,” Chan counters.

Changbin snickers. “Yeah. Just like how Jeongin’s flaw was being a freshman.” As Chan turns indignant, Changbin cuts him off. “I’m kidding, hyung. So maybe the right question is: is there something wrong with Chenle?”

Frowning, Chan says, “Yes. He’s an exchange student. So he’s only here for the next two months. After that, he’s going back to China.”

“Man, that’s… really unfortunate for Felix,” says Changbin.

“Yeah. Lixie tells me he’s open to a long-distance relationship but… those are always a little—or a _lot_ —different compared to, well. Non-long-distance relationships.” Chan stares at his hands instead of meeting Changbin’s eyes. “Distance can make the heart grow fonder, yes, but that’s not the only thing it can do.”

Changbin thinks of Jeongyeon and how she broke things off with Chan once she graduated. Chan may not have that much experience with long-distance relationships, but what he has is something that’s worse: a break-up that happened _because_ one party didn’t want to go long-distance.

He finishes the slice he’s holding before speaking again. “Felix and Chenle have two more months to figure things out, at least. I hope they can reach a resolution that won’t harm either of them.”

“Yeah, I hope they do,” replies Chan soberly. “Felix is my best friend. The last thing I want is for him to get hurt.”

  


* * *

  


The surprising thing is, it’s Felix who breaks up with Chenle. He doesn’t even wait the two months, breaking up with Chenle at the end of July, a full month before Chenle is due to fly back home.

When Chan had asked Felix about the break-up, Felix couldn’t give him straight answer. The workload was getting too much. He couldn’t handle having a boyfriend at the moment. He was awful busy right now.

“Which makes no damn sense,” Chan says, voice slurring a little, “because he’s going on another date with someone else next week!”

Changbin doesn’t know why he expected his night to go anywhere else. In a post-exam state of elation, Chan called him up two hours ago for drinks, and of course Changbin had said yes. He wasn’t going to refuse free alcohol. But he had to make the mistake of bringing Felix up, and if Chan was already going off on tangents about Felix while sober, he was twice as bad when he was buzzed.

“Okay, so Felix’s reasons are shot and he’s going out with another guy next week,” Changbin repeats, because he’s buzzed too. The repetition helps the information stick in his brain. “Felix has more game than you, dude. Shit, I think he’s got more game than both of us.”

Chan doesn’t deny it. “Ugh, it’s because he’s cute that guys keep asking him out.”

Changbin chokes on a gulp of beer. “I’m sorry, who’s cute?”

“Lixie,” Chan says, the answer coming quick. “Were you not paying attention?”

“This just keeps getting better and better,” comments Changbin mildly. “So, who asked our dearest Felix out?”

“Ah, I’m not sure if you know him?” Chan drains his bottle and cracks open another. “But his name’s Hwang Hyunjin.”

The name sparks a thread of recognition in Changbin. “Wait, Hwang Hyunjin? Tall, blonde, real handsome with a mole under his eye Hwang Hyunjin?”

Chan mulls it over before saying, “Yes? Felix showed me some pictures of him and they match your description. Wait a second, why d’you even know him?”

To be honest, Changbin doesn’t know Hyunjin that well. Just like with Felix, it’s more like he knows _of_ him. His roommate Jisung is dating Minho, the uni street dance club’s current president. Hyunjin is a member and an officer of the same club. When Minho visits the apartment, he always has stories about the club: the things they do, the routines they’re practicing, the music they have to mix. Changbin has been rooming with Jisung for a year now, and with Minho dropping by all the time, he has a wealth of information on the uni street dance club and its members.

“Huh, that’s interesting,” is all that Chan has to say after Changbin’s explanation. “Small world, eh?”

“You got that right,” says Changbin. “Listen, can I say this? I’m happy for Felix. Hyunjin seems like a genuinely nice dude. You know, Minho-hyung’s favorite pastime is getting under people’s skin, but even he goes easy on Hyunjin. Hyung says it’s because Hyunjin’s a sweet guy.”

When he looks back up at Chan, he’s wearing that sour milk grimace once again.

“Oh no,” Changbin starts. “Don’t tell me you’ve found something wrong with Hyunjin, too.”

Chan’s jaw twitches. He drains the bottle of Cass in his hand before declaring, “He’s too handsome.”

What the hell. Changbin is praying he gets his next words out without laughing because he doesn’t want to piss a drunk Chan off. “Okay, of all reasons to get mad—what do you mean, he’s too handsome? Sorry, but you’re not making any sense, hyung.”

“I don’t know, okay,” Chan grunts, raising both hands up in surrender. “It just—it just pisses me off.”

“Hyunjin pisses you off because he’s handsome?” Changbin asks, smiling now; he’s powerless to stop it. “Do you want Felix to date ugly boys exclusively?”

Instead of answering, Chan just digs the heels of his hands into his eyes.

The truth is, Changbin has been nursing a hypothesis, one that explains why Chan acts like this when Felix scores a date. He’s not sure when the idea had popped into his head. He likes to think that it’s one that arrived fairly recently, but in hindsight, it also explains a lot of Chan’s behavior around Felix in the past. Changbin’s always found their dynamics interesting, but only when Felix started dating guys did he start seeing things in a different light.

Changbin thinks it’s high time to test his hypothesis once and for all. “Hyung, I’m going to ask you some weird questions so brace yourself, okay?”

Looking like he’s got nothing to lose, Chan just nods.

“Do you want to date Hyunjin?”

Chan splutters. “W-what? Why would I want to date Hyunjin? I don’t even know him, fuck, he’s not even my _type_ —”

“Okay, so you don’t want to date Hyunjin. Next question.” _Here goes nothing._ “If you don’t want to date him, then do you want to date Felix?”

It’s a good thing Changbin waited until Chan didn’t have beer in his mouth, otherwise he’d have sprayed it all over Changbin’s face.

“What the fuck?” Words fail Chan after that.

Undeterred, Changbin continues, “I think—and correct me if I’m wrong here—that you just hate whoever Felix is going out with because it. Isn’t. You!” He punctuates the last bit with well-timed slams of his palm against the table.

Chan’s mouth is still hanging open, and he’s not defending himself. That gives Changbin the courage to press on. “Think about it, hyung. You’re _always_ on the boyfriend’s case. You judge them unprovoked. How many of our previous conversations have revolved around your fears that Felix’s boyfriend won’t treat him right? Hell, sometimes, when you bring up the guys Felix dates, you get a look on your face like you’ve just drunk sour milk.” Changbin takes a reinforcing swig of beer before proceeding. “When they break up, you always have to inform me and hyung, honestly? You seem a little too happy that they did. To top it all off, you think Felix is cute. Which—okay, _everyone_ thinks Felix is cute, but he just has to do a little aegyo and you’re already tripping over your feet to buy him milk tea. Don’t you think you just have a crush on him?”

Chan’s still at a loss for words, and for a long while only the din of the bar rings in Changbin’s ears. Having said his part, he just watches Chan go through a whole rolodex of expressions—wide-eyed realization, blushing embarrassment, jerky tension—while waiting for his next words.

“I—fucking hell, dude, I don’t know what to say,” Chan admits. He’s regarding the beer bottle in his hands like it holds all the answers to his questions. “I’ve always thought that I was only acting this way because I wanted to—wanted to _protect_ Felix. He’s the friend I’ve known the longest, and he’s everything to me, you know?”

Changbin wants to say, “I know, hyung. I fucking know,” but he keeps silent.

A broken sort of laugh starts to bubble out of Chan. “Fuck,” he says, “when you put it that way it seems like that’s the case, doesn’t it? A crush. Goddammit. And all this time I thought it was all what—platonic?”

“It stopped seeming like that to me after like, the Jaemin thing,” confesses Changbin. A mix of emotions swirl inside him. Some of these are: vindication at having been correct; sympathy for Chan, who looks as if he’s just had the rug pulled from underneath him; and confusion at how Chan, normally perceptive to a scary extent, has missed this. The sympathy matters the most, though, and he pulls Chan to his side in a tight hug.

“Fuck, you know what, Binnie, I don’t even think this whole thing’s just a crush,” Chan murmurs quietly once he’s pulled away. “I think I’m already half in love with Felix, and I just didn’t know all this time.”

“Damn, hyung,” wheezes Changbin. _That_ _was_ _quick_. “At least you know now.”

“I can’t believe this.” Chan slams the Cass back, wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand. “Everything makes so much sense now, Binnie. I can’t believe you had to point it out—it was right under my nose and I didn’t even fucking notice it!”

“There’s some psychology shit on that, maybe. How people miss patterns when it concerns them,” Changbin replies. “So what are you gonna do now, hyung? Felix still has that date with Hyunjin. You’re still coming to terms with your crush—or love, or whatever. That bit’s for you to figure out. What’s your plan?”

“God, I don’t know,” Chan answers honestly. “Probably… probably get my thoughts together first, while sober. And then when I’ve done that, I think I’m going to talk to Felix when I can. If I can. And I’m going to apologize—not for how I feel, but for dropping this fucking—fucking bomb on him out of nowhere. I really couldn’t put two and two together, huh?”

“There, there, hyung. You’ll figure it out,” Changbin assures him, patting him on the shoulder. The funny thing is, Changbin believes this entirely. Chan’s someone who catches all the curve balls life throws at him. “In the meantime, though, I think this night calls for something stronger,” he says, already standing up, “d’you want shots?”

  


* * *

  


A sudden wave of schoolwork slams into Changbin, and he grows so busy that he fails to ask what happened in the wake of Chan’s realization. It’s like all his professors have conspired to make the weeks leading up to finals an absolute nightmare. He’s fighting through tests and papers and random recitation quizzes; he has neither the time nor the energy to talk to anyone.

Swamped as he is, he hopes deep down that Chan and Felix are doing okay. Especially Chan, who’s always seemed so damn unshakeable to him. He might have missed this development brewing—as he said—right under his nose, but Changbin knows that Chan really does love Felix. Yes, love. He finds it doubtful that Chan’s feelings are completely platonic, but he’s certain that it is love—what else could he call the shine in Chan’s eyes whenever he so much as thought of Felix?

As suddenly as the schoolwork had come, it drops off all at once. Changbin comes crawling out of his two week-long stint in hell broken and tired as shit. But he’s still alive, and that’s what truly matters. Fuck it if he gets a bad grade, he needs to sleep for the next forty-eight hours.

When he comes to, the first thing he does is text Chan, _hey hyung, have you talked to felix already?_

Chan’s reply is cryptic. _Meet me at jamies and well talk._

Two hours, two sandwiches, and a plate of spaghetti later, Changbin asks, “Okay, so what happened?” To be honest, he’s gotten kind of invested in this. He hopes that it worked out well; the last thing he wants is to be caught crying in public.

“So it turns out,” Chan starts, and then he takes a sip of iced tea. Changbin’s already hanging on tenterhooks, here. “It turns out Felix was dating around because he was trying to get over me.”

“Fuck off,” Changbin exclaims. From the corner of his eye, he sees Jamie squint at him. Oops.

“I’m serious,” says Chan. The giggle that follows is on the edge of hysterical.

_Is this a rom-com?_ thinks Changbin, doing a little _go_ _on_ gesture with his hand.

“I got my thoughts in order, first, like I said before. Fucking hell, that was terrible to do with the hangover your damn Fireballs left me with.” Chan spares him an irritated glance, and Changbin mouths _You’re_ _welcome_. “Anyway. The day after that, I texted Felix that I was going to tell him something important. And bless him, really, he came to my apartment not thirty minutes after I sent the message. He thought something was up. And when he got there I just. Told him how I felt. And then he told me that.”

“That he was serial dating trying to get over you?” asks Changbin.

“Yeah,” Chan confirms.

Damn. No wonder Felix empathized with Jaemin—he was pratically doing the same thing. Changbin doesn’t mention that, though, instead saying, “And you were out here serial _hating_ Felix’s boyfriends because you were jealous.”

“Shut up, dude,” mutters Chan, his ears going red.

Changbin grins at the sight. “How’d Felix take it, then? The news you were in love with him?”

“He asked me if I was lying at first, because he thought I was dating you.”

That brings Changbin up short. “How’d he end up thinking that?”

“It was because we got lunch together all the time,” answers Chan. “Lixie thought they were dates.”

Felix’s conclusion is so absurd that it makes Changbin crack up. “Dates? You just wanted to rant about his boyfriends! Hyung, this is hilarious. I can’t believe it—dates, really? I think all your ranting kinda bit you in the ass.”

“God, I know. And he was so sure, too. Come to think of it, I think he asked me before what we were doing whenever we went out, and I couldn’t answer him at all. That must have seemed a bit suspicious to him.”

Changbin flashes back to their past conversations. “Yeah, you very well couldn’t tell him you were cussing out his boyfriends. So what happened after that? How’d your conversation go? Shit, what happened to Felix’s date with Hyunjin?”

“One at a time, dude,” says Chan, holding his hands up in surrender. “After that… we cleared up our feelings for, er. For each other. Made sure we were on the same page and all. We talked for what? A couple of hours? It seemed like that, anyway. Felix had to cancel the date with Hyunjin, but Hyunjin was okay with it, so that was nice.”

“So are you two dating now? You and Felix?” asks Changbin.

Chan almost seems to radiate pure happiness as he answers the question. “Yeah. Yeah, we are.”

Because he is a very kind person, Changbin does not tell him that in hindsight—barring the odd few months of Felix dating other people—the two of them have practically been dating all this time. They’ve been attached at the hip since Changbin had first met Chan, for crying out loud, and had been thick as thieves before he had even entered their lives.

“So you’re the boyfriend now, huh,” Changbin says, and it’s like hearing the thought get affirmed by someone else makes Chan light up even more.

“I am, wow. I really am.” Chan gives a little whoop, sounding somewhere between faint and overjoyed. “Listen, Changbin-ah, I owe you so much for like, basically putting up with my own emotional turmoil and shit. Just tell me if you need me for anything—coffee, lunch? A go over your tracks? Name it, and I’ll do it.”

Chan doesn’t really _have_ to do that. He’s one of Changbin’s closest friends; the conversations and the help are something that comes with the territory. But hey, it is nice to be appreciated, and favors never hurt anybody.

“Just make sure to bring Felix along when we’re having coffee or what,” he says, a teasing lilt to his voice. “We can’t have him thinking you’re cheating on him, after all.”

“Oh shit, yeah, I will,” Chan says with a small laugh.

“Oh! And maybe we can have a little talk on your rants on his boyfriends,” Changbin suggests for the hell of it.

Chan groans, covering his mouth with a hand. “No, Binnie, you can’t do that!”

Changbin digs his phone out of his pocket, saying, “Hey, hyung, do you think Felix is free right now?”

“You are the absolute worst, Seo Changbin,” Chan says, but there’s a smile on his face, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Other ships in the fic, in order of mentioning: Felix/Seungmin, Chan/Jeongyeon, Felix/Jeongin, Felix/Jaemin, Jaemin/Jeno, Felix/Chenle, Felix/Hyunjin, Jisung/Minho
> 
> I apologize to the guys I mentioned, especially Jaemin and Chenle. I’m sure you are all wonderful people lmao
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
